Cork County Council presses for dredging of rivers 'to mitigate against flooding in the short-term'

Senior Cork County Council officials are trying to get Inland Fisheries Ireland to alter its decision not to allow dredging of the rivers in Bandon, Clonakilty, Skibbereen, and Glanmire to go ahead.

Councillors reacted with fury to news last week that Inland Fisheries Ireland was refusing to allow dredging in rivers running through these towns, because it said it didn’t want any riverbed works carried out when the Office of Public Works had already put together comprehensive plans for flood relief programmes there.

County engineer David Keane said that under the Local Authority Works Act (1949) the council was allowed “certain discretion” to overturn this in the event of emergencies.

He said the council had asked Inland Fisheries Ireland for its definition of an emergency because the local authority feels it should be allowed to dredge rivers “to mitigate against flooding in the short-term”.

The emergency clause in the legislation was invoked by his predecessor, Noel O’Keeffe, who in early July 2012 told the Inland Fisheries Ireland that he was going to remove 100 tonnes of wooden pallets which had lodged in the River Glashaboy, near St Stephen’s Hospital, Sarsfield’s Court, Glanmire, Co Cork.

Just days earlier more than 60 houses and 30 businesses in Glanmire had been destroyed in flooding. Some were again hit during Storm Frank on December 29 and 30. Mr O’Keeffe said the pallets, which had formed a dam on the upper reaches of the river, presented a real threat to life and property if another storm arrived and washed them downstream into the heavily populated town centre.

Mr O’Keeffe’s workers spent several days removing the debris.

Fianna Fáil councillor Kevin O’Keeffe told a meeting of the County Council’s northern division that whatever legislation was in vogue had to be amended quickly as it was “creating mayhem” in many areas across the county which had repeatedly seen homes and businesses flooded in recent years.

The councillor said he was aware of a landowner in Doneraile who recently tried to clear a river bed of debris which could have led to flooding and subsequently found himself liable to prosecution because he needed a permit to do so from Inland Fisheries Ireland.

“This directive is too restrictive. We all appreciate the value of tourism angling, but (local) people’s livelihoods are at stake here. The Government must seek to have these rules relaxed,” Mr O’Keeffe said.

Party colleague Frank O’Flynn said he remembered some years ago when the River Araglin was regularly dredged near Kilworth village and it never flooded. However, he said that since dredging stopped the area was regularly waterlogged.

“Back in the day it (flooding) wasn’t a problem there. But that’s changed now. Surely people’s lives come first,” Mr O’Flynn said.

The Mayor of County Cork, Independent councillor John Paul O’Shea, said it was unfortunate that legislation was preventing the local authority from acting to prevent river beds getting clogged with debris, especially near bridges.

“Dredging is not the solution to everything, but it’s a help,” said Mr O’Shea.